6 Truths About Technology in Education I recently had the opportunity to Keynote the University of Pennsylvania Literacy Network’s Winter Symposium. Penn Literacy Network founder Mort Botel (who was also a former President of the International Reading Association) wrote one of the most influential works in my teaching career, “The Plainer Truths of Teaching/Learning/Assessing Across the Curriculum“; and with his passing this past year, I hoped to honor him in this address by framing my talk around the Truths of Technology in Education. Truth #1 is the reason we educate students. It’s for their benefit. But, it only matters to our students when they own the learning. When we give students choice, allow for inquiry, and foster creativity–then we see the amazing things they can do. Truth #2 comes from a quote I first heard Tom Murray say on stage, “Every child in your class is someone else’s whole world.” Truth #3 is all about the story. Truth #6 is something all of us know who work in education. Awesome!
Educational Technology and Mobile Learning: 6 Powerful Chrome Apps for Classroom Management November 6, 2015 For those of you using Chrome in their instruction, below is a collection of some of our favourite extensions to use for classroom management. Some of the things you can do with these add-ons include: monitoring students in-class behaviour, create and organize assignments, track students grades and progress, organize both formative and summative assessments, generate report charts and many more. 1- Google Classroom “Classroom is a new tool in Google Apps for Education that helps teachers create and organize assignments quickly, provide feedback efficiently, and easily communicate with their classes. “ ClassDojo helps teachers improve behavior in their classrooms quickly and easily. “Seating and behavior charts are an essential parts of any good teacher’s tool kit. “Engage, assess and personalize your class with Socrative! 6- Exit Ticket
OSLA - Central Auditory Processing Auditory Processing can be understood as the link between the ears and the brain. Both children and adults can be affected by difficulties understanding what is heard, despite normal hearing and normal intelligence. This difficulty impacts the ability of the child or adult to function in everyday life. Our ears detect sound; the brain gives these sounds meaning An auditory processing disorder (APD) is a disruption of sound along the pathway from the ear to the brain, which interferes with understanding. The ears do not work alone to decipher incoming information- the brain has its own part to play. A Team of Professionals Must be Involved in the Diagnosis Signs of an Auditory Processing Disorder Who can be tested for APD? Almost any child aged 7 or older can be tested for APD. What will my child be expected to do? The tests for APD simply seek to discover what a child hears when sounds enter the auditory system. Therapy There is no “one size fits all” therapy approach. Next Steps
Google Search - Google Gamed by Cyber-Bullies, Needs Sentiment Analysis The New York Times has a great exposé on how Vitaly Borker and his online DecorMyEyes eyeglass business uses negativity to bolster his PageRank and profits. Search Engine Land's Danny Sullivan is consulted in the piece and blogged about it, summing it up thusly: Any publicity, even negative publicity, means a win with Google's ranking algorithms. Is he right? Maybe. First, Borker is beyond rude and mean. Second, as a media man, I see parallels between what Borker is doing and what Hollywood handlers do to thrust faded personalities back into the limelight under the "all press is good press" technique. I respect how that works. I'll let you read the story for yourself, but I'm going to assume up front that Sullivan is right that Google does not use sentiment analysis as a search signal. Sentiment analysis is a signal Google could use to surface results by looking at whether people "liked" or "disliked" something they found online. Maybe that would work.
Three Good Ways to Use All Those Pictures Students Take Take a look at almost any student's cell phone and you're bound to find hundreds or thousands of pictures and videos that they taken. As teachers we should put our students' picture-taking and video-taking habits to good use. There are three ways to utilize students' picture-taking habits in your classroom. Create a b-roll gallery. Create digital portfolios of physical work. Tell a story. Are you trying to get students to tell stories about themselves? Storehouse, Adobe Slate, Thematic, and Pic-Collage are all good options for telling stories with pictures.
Squiggles for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store As a teacher, what support can I get for using the devices my student brings to the classroom? | Australian Hearing Teachers are committed to educating and supporting their students. However, most teachers will be unfamiliar with the technology that a student with hearing loss brings to the classroom. Students with hearing loss need special support if they are to maximise hearing and achieve their academic potential. For all the technological advances of recent years, hearing aids and cochlear implants do not give ‘normal hearing’ to a student with hearing loss. Listening conditions have a much greater impact on a student with hearing loss than on other students. Clearly, listening conditions will rarely be this good in a classroom or other learning environment. However, there are solutions that minimise background noise and boost your student’s existing hearing devices. The following short videos dramatically demonstrate the difficulties for students with hearing loss and the impact of remote microphone (FM) technology: How does remote microphone technology work? Some helpful features
Cyber Safety : InformED It's always good to be cautious while on the internet. There are people in the cyber world who want to do harm to you or your computer. These are some good tips to keep in mind while you are surfing: Be careful about what you put on the web. It's on there forever and can be used to trace back to you at any time. Keep track of who you interact with on the internet. Some people may not be who they seem to be. Know that privacy is just an illusion. Even personal information on social networks can be easily recovered by anyone. Don't open any links in emails or chat rooms that look suspicious or unfamiliar. Also, never open any strange files that your computer may have downloaded from an email or a website. The best way on the internet to keep in touch with friends, sharing pictures and memories, and meet new people is by using a social network. Some of the most popular social networks as of today are: It may be unnerving to hear this but you virtually have no privacy on a social network. You should:
An education for the 21st century means teaching coding in schools **The Edvocate is pleased to publish guest posts as way to fuel important conversations surrounding P-20 education in America. The opinions contained within guest posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of The Edvocate or Dr. Matthew Lynch Leon Sterling, Swinburne University of Technology Bill Shorten’s recent announcement that, if elected, a Labor Government would “ensure that computer coding is taught in every primary and secondary school in Australia” has brought attention to an increasing world trend. Estonia introduced coding in primary schools in 2012 and the UK followed suit last year. There is merit in school students learning coding. There is also a strong case to be made that Australia’s future prosperity will depend on delivering advanced services and digital technology, and that programming will be essential to this end. Being introduced to coding gives students an appreciation of what can be built with technology. Drag and drop
This Man Invented a Font to Help People With Dyslexia Read A new typeface is making life easier for people everywhere who live with dyslexia. Christian Boer, 33, is a Dutch graphic designer who created the font that makes reading easier for people, like himself, who have dyslexia, according to his website. Now, he’s offering it to people for free. The typeface is called “Dyslexie,” and Boer first developed it as a final thesis project when he was a student at the Utrecht Art Academy in the Netherlands. The font makes reading easier for people with dyslexia by varying the letter shapes more, making it harder to confuse similarly shaped letters like “b” and “d,” for example. Dyslexia is a language-based processing disorder resulting in a learning disability often characterized by difficulties with accurate word recognition, decoding and spelling, according to the National Center for Learning Disabilities. Research suggests that about 17 percent of the population has dyslexia, according to PBS. We face disabilities and diseases together.
Cognitive Informatics - Interactive e-Learning Approach Integrating multimedia content (such as simulations, 3-D and 360-degree rotation objects, virtual reality, etc.) into interactive training applications should be driven by cognitive/learning principles rather than for "audio-visual" enhancement. PNNL's cognitive approach to Instructional System Design is based on fundamental learning concepts and a technical approach that creates multimedia learning objects that have specific learning and performance objectives. These interactive learning objects support the design and implementation of scenario-based instruction. When we define learning objectives for these interaction elements, they become learning objects that: Allow learners to check their understanding Guide student practice with worked examples May be re-used in lesson quizzes and module tests Form building blocks for integrated, practical scenarios. Distinctive features of our cognitive approach include:
User Generated Education | Education as it should be – passion-based. 5. Pre-assessment Ideas - Differentiation & LR Information for SAS Teachers “Assessment is today’s means of modifying tomorrow’s instruction.” Carol Ann Tomlinson Pre-assessment provides valuable information about what is already known about a topic and readiness to start new instruction. Here are some other pre-assessment methods to consider: Anticipation journals Drawing related to topic or contentGame activitiesGraphic organizersGuess BoxInformational surveys/Questionnaires/InventoriesInitiating activitiesJournalsPicture InterpretationPortfolio analysisPredictionQuestioning (consider using Costa's Levels of Questioning - an AVID technique)Self-evaluationsShow of hands to determine understandingStandardized test informationStudent demonstrations and discussionsStudent interviewsStudent products and work samplesTeacher observation/checklistsTeacher prepared testsWriting prompts/samples